Bedside table

What’s on your bedside table?

Bedside lamp; mug of green tea; ceramic ox (Chinese Zodiac animal); well used, partially repaired battery alarm clock; notebook and pen; four books (to tide me over a spell of teaching in China).

Tell us more about those books.

In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming – a must read for every West Indian: a must read. A book with everything, poetic, historical, a record of events at a time of a changing society, no doubt biographical, unconventional in style, seamless. The Bachelor of Arts by R K Narayan – simple direct, accessible writing. Narayan paints big, clear pictures with small words and sentences – stories of life and living and cultural history without patronising overlays. Runaway by Alice Munro. Some years ago, one of my sisters told me about the enchanting beauty and insights of Alice Munro’s stories. After Alice Munro passed away earlier this year the plaudits in the global press served as a reminder of what I might be missing. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss – the only thing I can remember about a “negotiation” course I once attended was that it finished by telling us that you could “win” by “splitting the difference”. The contra-indicative title of Voss’s book caught my eye and I’m dipping my way through.

Do they help with your work?

Not directly, but they are a reminder of the power, joy and importance of language and communication, and knowledge, history and culture. Also, because they can, at the end of the day, close the door on the distractions of professional focus. I have a collection of “technical” books (still growing) that serves me well, though none of these books have been specifically influential on my professional strategic thinking or planning. But, the general literature, the books and stories I have read over the years probably have left their mark. I think that the novels, classics, histories, biographies (of mathematicians in particular), renditions of “popular science” have had some collective influence on my thinking and approach to life.

What is the top book you would recommend to other engineers?

Most Secret War by R V Jones, a scientist by training whose influence and all-round ability and understanding of human behaviour, and that of organisations and the actions that come out of formalised bureaucracies, no doubt contributed significantly to the outcome of World War II.

What book has most shaped your career?

I cannot think of any single book that changed the way I think or work. However, there are a few paragraphs in another book by R V Jones I read recently, that strongly impinge on problem solving where real outcomes are desirable or imperative. In Reflections on Intelligence (as in military information and analysis) Jones wrote: “Soon after the arrival of the scientists, I told my staff that they were not to be asked just to answer the questions posed by the uniformed staff but to be fully brought in to the framing of the questions for whose solutions their help was wanted.”

What work-related books are on your must-read list?

Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatistics (second edition) by Herbert B Callen. A colleague was preparing a lecture on chemical energetics, something on entropy. We talked and I read a few pages of one of his books. It seemed I was on my way to finding some (partial?) answers to questions that have eluded and confused me since I was a student. Advice to a Young Scientist by P B Medawar. A simple and straightforward narrative on being a scientist – dated, but still relevant.

What do you read for fun/leisure?

Fun: detective/mystery/action. I particularly enjoyed Ian Rankin’s books and books by James Lee Burke. Leisure: everything I can find, and find time for.

SPEED READ

Ebook/paper copy

Borrow/own

Bookmark/turn down page

This article was first published in the September 2024 issue of EG magazine.